Gunman, officer shot in Arlington Heights barricade situation

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A SWAT team stormed an Arlington Heights home late Thursday night and shot a 41-year-old gunman suspected of shooting a police officer and taking one person hostage, authorities said.

The freed hostage was uninjured but was taken to a local hospital for observation, authorities said.

The injured officer, a 20-year veteran of the department, was in critical condition at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, although his condition was believed to have been stabilized, an Arlington Heights police commander said in a news conference at the scene. The alleged gunman’s condition was not immediately released.

The officer’s family was with him at the hospital, and he was in surgery just before 10 p.m., police said. The officer is a man, Mayor Thomas Hayes said.

The officer was shot in the neck when police first responded to a call of a man with a gun about 6:50 p.m. in the 1900 block of Windham Court in the northwest suburb, Cmdr. Andrew Whowell said in a news conference just before 9 p.m. The man had one woman in the townhome, and she was being considered a hostage, he said.

The officer was the first to try to enter the townhome and was shot while going in, Whowell said.

“Responding officers that were with him were able to pull him out of the residence, to safety,” Whowell said, adding that police have identified the gunman, but were not immediately releasing that information.

Police were communicating with the gunman, and trying to get him to surrender peacefully, Whowell said.

Police shot out streetlights in the area for tactical purposes, “so if you hear gunfire, that’s what that was,” Whowell said.

Dozens of officers, many in SWAT gear, surrounded the residential area where the shooting took place.

The neighborhood of townhouses is just northwest of Arlington Heights and Palatine roads.

Marla Futterman, said she had been dining at a nearby restaurant when officers entered the restaurant and told workers there that an officer had been shot and that the eatery should lock its doors.

A large stretch of Palatine Road was blocked off, and multiple squad cars from several different suburban communities were parked along the median along Palatine Road and are staging in the area.